DIGITAL.NEOSKOSMOS.COM THE WEEKEND NEOS KOSMOS | SATURDAY 6 JUNE 2015 25 GREECE Golden Dawn trial resumes Courtroom location worries locals The long-awaited trial is to resume on Monday 8 June at a specially-designed highsecurity courtroom at the Korydallos Prison, despite local authorities and residents' objections. Residents have lobbied an order to move the trial from the precinct of Korydallos to the Athens Appeals Court, as the prison facility is located next to schools and residential areas. Outside the landmark trial sessions, hundreds of Golden Dawn supporters are engaging in riots with individuals shouting slogans against Nazism. Meanwhile, defence law- yers representing the Golden Dawn MPs asked that alleged victims of GD should not be allowed to appear in court as civil claimants. In what appeared to be a symbolic move, judges allowed the mother and sister of Pavlos Fyssas, a leftist rapper murdered in 2013 by a self-professed Golden Dawn supporter, to address the court as civil claimants. The decision resulted into a massive brawl between the families of the victims and members of the extreme farright Greek political party, causing damages to several properties and cars. Local authorities asked for the trial to be moved to another venue but the government said that a new space cannot be designated until September. The presiding judge, Maria Lepeniotou, has also confirmed that the trial would continue at Korydallos Prison until further notice, adding that she had asked the leadership of the Greek Police to increase security. Source: Kathimerini Study finds Greeks lost four tenths of income in crisis The economic crisis has seen the poorest households suffer most, with more people than ever living below the poverty line JOHN PSAROPOULOS A new study estimates that the average Greek household lost almost four tenths of its income in the first five years of the crisis. Most of that loss - 23.1 per cent - was in direct income, the study says. A further 8.8 per cent was lost to increased taxation and another seven per cent to inflation not matched by increases in income over the period 2008-2012. The study is based on the declared income of 5.2 million taxpayers. The study (‘Greece: Forms of adaptation, solidarity and inequalities in the crisis period’) was unveiled on Thursday by its authors, Tasos Yiannitsis and Stavros Zografakis, economists at Athens University and Athens Agricultural University, respectively. It found that income from salaries, which affected mainly the middle-class and blue collar workers, fell by 27 per cent, but income from corporate profits and dividends, which affected the rich, fell by 54 per cent, suggesting that all social strata suffered. However, its authors point out that the losses to the poor, though nominally smaller, were devastating because incomes among the lowest earning households were already low. The proportion of Greeks living below the poverty line rose from 27.9 per cent to 31.1 per cent, but economist Panos Tsakloglou said that figure conceals the true extent of the spread of poverty, because the definition of poverty fell over the same period by a thousand euros to €7,756 euros. In 2008 terms, approximately 40 per cent of Greeks are below the poverty line, Tsakloglou said. In an indication of how badly the Greek state has failed to provide for the neediest during the crisis, the study found that in the poorest 10 per cent of households, less than a tenth of their income came from social welfare. Most - 62 per cent - came from charity and donations from friends and neighbours. Source: The New Athenian (www.thenewathenian.com/) Growth prospects evaporating A Golden Dawn supporter raises his fist to riot police in Athens. PHOTO:ARIS MESSINISARIS MESSINIS/AFP/GETTY. Migrants arrive in Lesvos "Excuse me, what country am I in?" a young Syrian man who just minutes earlier had come ashore on Lesvos island asked the reporters in perfect English. The famished man, who had been travelling for days from Turkey to Greece, was only carrying a small bag and his mobile phone in a sandwich bag. He and over 200 others who left their home in the hope of escaping civil war, had paid the smugglers thousands of euros. Dozens of infants and young children arrived on the shores of Lesvos, cold and wet, crying for food. Pregnant women, helped by civilians and coastguard officers, knelt and kissed the ground of this unknown country. More than 40,000 have ar- rived on Greek territory this year and it's not even the peak of the smuggling season. Thousands of migrants from Eritrea and Syria are expect- ed to set foot on the shores of Greece and Italy, especially after the new Migration Agenda bills that were approved last week. Meanwhile, Greece is struggling to rise above its own crisis and is unable to support any more migrants. Lesvos island has no available facilities to accommodate the refugees, as another 1,000 people are being kept in a detention centre. The mayor has used community money to build a makeshift campsite, while the locals are offering the migrants blankets and food as the island's authorities are lacking supplies. "Now is the time for Europe to stand up and do something to help these people," a shop owner in Lesvos said. "People and infants are sleeping on the streets, we can't handle this situation by ourselves." Source: Infomobile OECD revises GDP expansion estimate from 2.3 to just 0.1 per cent, while debt and jobless rate will persist Growth in Greece will amount to no more than an anaemic 0.1 per cent this year, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which in its latest report has revised its forecast for the Greek economy down from 2.3 per cent six months ago. However, even that marginal growth, warned the OECD, depends on Greece reaching an agreement with its creditors, as the lack of a satisfactory deal would lead to "a significant contraction of output and income of households". The big challenge for the Greek economy remains the implementation of reforms, and any failure will lead to a contraction in gross domestic product. Forecasts issued this week are much lower than those published in November, when the OECD anticipated 2.3 per cent growth for this year and a 3.3 per cent expansion in 2016. Now it expects the 2015 GDP to grow just 0.1 per cent before the economy expands 2.3 per cent next year. According to the OECD, the targets for investment and strengthening consumption have been undermined by the credit conditions and the low confidence in the economy, while the benefits from the increase in competitiveness will not be enough to push exports forward unless they are accompanied by structural reforms to lift the barriers to commerce and investments. Albeit on a downward course, unemployment will remain on a high level this and next year, at 25.7 per cent in 2015 and 24.7 per cent in 2016 (against previous forecasts for 25.2 per cent and 24.1 per cent respectively), Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras while deflation will persist this year before inflation returns in 2016. The country's debt will also remain high, at 180 per cent of GDP this year and 178.1 per cent in 2016, against previous estimates for 174.3 per cent and 171.4 per cent respectively. PHOTO: AP/YORGOS KARAHALIS. The fiscal policy should aim at a much lower fiscal outcome, for a deficit of 3.4 per cent of GDP this year and 2.8 per cent in 2016, while a key point will be the reform of the tax system and the tax collection capacity, to ensure an increase in state revenues. Source: Kathimerini